Board for building purposes.



No. 757,812. LPATENTED APR. 19,'19 04..

A. B. KEYES.

BOARD FOR BUILDING PURPOSES.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES,

Patented April 19, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

BOARD FOR BUILDING PURPOSES. i

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 757,812, dated. April19, 1904.

Application filed August 13, 1903.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, A'rwoon B. KEYEs, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Ayer, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts,have invented an Improvement in Boards for Building Purposes, of whichthe following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings,is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing likeparts.

This invention has for its object the production of an eflicient boardfor floors or other building purposes which can be securely and firmlyinterlocked with the abutting end of the next adjacent board.

Flooring is usually laid with tongue-andgroove boards which thusinterlock at their longitudinal edges, the boards being squared at theirends and butted together, and it has been customary to make the joint atthe joist, so as to support the free abutted ends of the two meetingboards. Such procedure requires careful matching of the boards in orderthat they may meet at the joists and necessitates time and labor as wellas undue waste of material. In my present invention I provide the boardwith an end of such shape and construction-that it can be firmly andsecurely interlocked with the abutted end of the next board, myinvention being applicable to flooring, clapboards, or in any structureWhere it is de-. sired to secure or lock together the ends of twomeeting boards.

The novel features of my invention will be fully described in thesubjoined specification, and particularly pointed out in the followingclaims.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the ends of two boards embodying myinvention and adapted to be interlocked when abutted end to end. Fig. 2is a plan view showing meeting boards, such as illustrated in Fig. 1,when interlocked, as in flooring or clapboarding. Fig. 3 is a sideelevation thereof, showing the interlocked joint; and Fig. 4 is a sideor edge view, on a smaller scale, showing the opposite ends of a boardembodying my invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 3, the meeting ends of two boards A and B areshown, said boards being separated in Fig. 1 and interlocked in SerialNo. 169,314. (No model.)

Figs. 2 and 3, and, as will appear hereinafter,

one end of a board will be the reverse of the other end. I have shownthe boards as pro vided on their opposite sides or edges with the usualtongue and groove, as at a b a 6 such construction being usuallyemployed in flooring. The board A is provided at its end with two seriesof longitudinal locking-tongues a and a the tongues a of the upperseries alternating with the tongues a of the lower series, and the outerends of the tongues are located in two intersecting planes transverse tothe length of the board.

Referring to Fig. 3, the ends (0 of the tongues a are located in a planeindicated by the broken line m 00, Fig. 3, while the ends a of thetongues a are located in the plane indicated at 1/ y, said planesintersecting each other at 2, Fig. 3, the line of intersection be ingherein shown as midway between the upper and lower faces of the board.Herein I have shown the planes intersecting at right angles; but myinvention is not restricted thereto.

Viewing Figs. 1 and 2, it will be manifest that the spaces or groovesbetween the tongues a are opposite the tongues a of the other series,and vice versa, and, furthermore, the bottoms a of the upper set ofgrooves are in the plane and form continuations of the ends (0 oftongues a So, too, the bottoms a of the lower set of grooves form planecontinuations of the ends (0 of tongues a, as shown in Fig. 3. Theinterlocking end of the board B is formed in asimilar manner, exceptthat its tongues 6 come opposite the spaces between the ton ues a, whilethe tongues b are 0 osite the spaces or grooves between the tongues a sothat when the two ends are abutted the several.

creasing its strength and preventing any relative lateral movement ofthe two interlocked boards.

As shown, the edge or side tongues 61/ and b are oppositely beveled attheir meeting ends, the bevel of the tongue a lying in the plane of thetongue ends (1. while the bevel of tongue bf is in the plane of the ends6 The bottoms 6 6 of the two sets of grooves of the board B areindicated-in Fig. 3, and obviously the former are inthe plane of thetongue ends b and the latter in the plane of the tongue ends 72Preferably the opposite end of the board A will be the counterpart ofthe end of board B, (shown in Fig. 1,) and similarly for the board B,the opposite ends of a board being the reverse of each other.

In laying flooring or sheathing where the boards when laid form a planesurface the location of the joints at the ends of meetingboardsrelatively to the joists or other supporting-timbers is immaterial, asthe interlocking character of the joints makes them firm and rigid evenwhen between timbers, as shown in Fig. 3, the timbers or joists beingindicated by dotted lines at T.

The construction of the locking ends can be readily efiected by mountingseveral saws or cutters of proper width of face on a common spindle andseparated a distance equal to the thickness of the tongues to be formed.Several boards are then superposed with their ends advanced or steppedand setup on edge on the table of the machine and moved in a diagonaldirection past the saws or cutters. 'lhls operatlon forms one set orseries of tongues and grooves on each board, and then by reversing thepile of boards and restepping them they are again fed to the saws, buton a line intersecting the first line of feed to form the second seriesof tongues and grooves on each board.

As the mode of forming the interlocking ends of the boards forms no partof my present invention and inasmuch as it may be carried out in otherways, I have not herein illustrated any apparatus therefor.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1. A board for building purposes, having at its end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twointersecting, transverse planes, the tongues of one series being locatedopposite the spaces between those of the other series."

2. A board for building purposes, having at its end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twointersecting, transverse planes oblique to the upper and lower sides ofthe board, said outer ends of the tongues of one series forming continuations of the bottoms of the Spaces or grooves between the tongues ofthe other series.

3. A board for building purposes, having at its end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are'located in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces'of the board andintersecting midway therebetween, the tongues of one series being offsetlaterally with relation to the tongues of the other series.

4. A board for building purposes, having at its end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces of the board andintersecting at right angles midway therebetween, the tongues of oneseries being offset laterally from those of the other series.

5. A board for building purposes, having at each end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof arelocated in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces of the board andintersecting midway therebetween, thetongues of one series being offsetlaterally with relation to those of the other series.

6. A board for building purposes, having at each end two series of.longitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces of the board andintersecting, the ends of the upper series of tongues at one end of theboard being parallel to the ends of the tongues of the lower series at'the other end i of the board, and vice versa.

7. A board for buildingpurposes, having at its end-two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces of the board andintersecting midway therebetween, the bottoms of the spaces or groovesbetween the tongues of one series lying in the plane of the ends of thetongues of the other series. v

8. A board for building purposes, having at each end two series oflongitudinal lockingtongues the outer ends whereof are located in twoplanes oblique to the upper and lower faces of the board andintersecting at right angles midway therebetween, the ends of thetongues of one series lying in the plane of and opposite the bottoms ofthe spaces or grooves between the tongues of the other series.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

ATWOOD B. KEYES. Witnesses:

WARREN H. ATWOOD, EDWARD A. RICHARDSON.

